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WHICH INITIATION DOES NOT LEAD ÁSTRAY FROM THE IRUE MYSTERIES
As Schelling’s Introduction ends with Lecture VIII on the grounding of
positive philosophy, we may ask: what grounds did he actually disclose? Is it
still a cognoscendum, the most worthy of all that can be known? In which
experience (presentiment, Ahndung)** can these grounds reveal themselves
as the most worthy of existence? In which position does reason find itself
immersed after the moment when its entelecheia has been oriented toward
an ultimate /Letztes] existence [das Unvordenkliche]? The negativity which
Schelling puts to the test in the negative “science of reason,” causes—as
he calls it—“a constant overthrow [Umsturz] of reason”® in order to pass
over into real knowledge. It involves passing over a potentia ad actum.
On the rebound, positive philosophy also yields a reverse “overthrow of
reason.” Indeed, when from “that which just is [das bloss Seynde or das Seyn],
every idea, that is every potency, is excluded,” reason is set outside itself
or is “absolutely ecstatic.”" In the orientation toward the Absolute Prius or
das Uberseynde, or the unprethinkable, reason is overthrown into ecstasy.
In this position, reason will thereafter, a posteriori, acquire “that which
just is” [das bloss Seyende] as its content, “and in this way return to itself at
the same time.””? Negative philosophy (or the science of reason) joins positive
philosophy, but only afterwards, as posterius, after having experienced
ecstatically the absolute transcendence* in which things in their Seyendes¬
sein come to be comprehended. Respecting this order, philosophy as a science
can be a philosophy of revelation. It is scientific not simply because a “science
of reason” (for instance a transcendental logic) is, so to say, put to work, but
also because philosophy has—prior to this logic, prior to this potency—
posited itself within what posits itself as pure actuality, i.e., “that what is
genuinely and properly true, Truth itself.”“* This position, having posited itself
into the cognizance of “Truth itself,” marks the initiation into the mysteries
of existence as being completed.
PART II: THE PRE-CRITICAL AND CRITICAL KANT
ON “POSITIVE” PHILOSOPHY AND MYSTERIES, RESPECTIVELY
I continue my analysis with two inquiries on Kant (1724-1804). The first
refers to his pre-critical work Nova Dilucidatio (1755) and, in particular,
to his demonstration of the existence of God (Propositio VII), focussing on
38 Grounding, Lecture VI (SW I1/3, 111).
3° Grounding, Lecture VII (SW II/3, 152).
10 Grounding, Lecture VIII (SW 11/3, 162).
4 Grounding, Lecture VIII (SW 11/3, 163).
® Grounding, Lecture VIII (SW 11/3, 163).
13 Grounding, Lecture VIII (SW 11/3, 169).
4 Grounding, Lecture VIII (SW I1/3, 150).
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